TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) \u2014 Thousands of people marched through Tunisia\u2019s capital Saturday, decrying an expanding\u00a0crackdown on opposition voices\u00a0and a proposed lifting of subsidies for food and other goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The march organized by Tunisia\u2019s powerful central trade union was the latest challenge to Tunisian President Kais Saied, whose leadership of the North African nation is prompting growing international concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since taking office in October 2019, Saied has consolidated his power, dismantled the country\u2019s democratic gains and unleashed\u00a0repression against migrants from elsewhere in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Marchers chanted slogans Saturday against price increases and food shortages, the biggest concern for most Tunisians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Talks with the International Monetary Fund on an agreement to help finance the government have stalled amid political tensions. The IMF has called for the lifting of some subsidies and other reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tunisian General Labour Union, which is known by its French acronym UGTT, accuses the president of betraying promises made in negotiations over the reforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UGTT was one of a \u2019\u2019quartet\u2033 of groups that\u00a0won the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize\u00a0for their work to save Tunisia\u2019s budding democracy from collapsing into civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saied questioned the motives of the organizers of Saturday\u2019s march and denounced the UGTT\u2019s decision to invite foreign trade union leaders to the protest as \u201cunacceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation was\u00a0declared persona non grata\u00a0in Tunisia after taking part in a demonstration last month. On Thursday, Tunisian border police turned away a Spanish trade union leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTunisia is not a farm, meadow or a land without a master. Whoever wants to demonstrate is free to do so, but he does not have to invite foreigners to participate,\u201d Saied said on the eve of Saturday\u2019s march.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UGTT Secretary-General Noureddine Taboubi said he would have liked to hear a reassuring and unifying speech from the president, but instead heard only coded insults.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are supporters of social peace and our weapon is arguments. We are not promoters of violence and terrorism,\u201d the union leader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taboubi and other marchers expressed solidarity with government critics who are currently incarcerated. Tunisian police have arrested a string of figures from the Islamist opposition, the media, the judiciary and the business community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saied has grown increasingly autocratic since he suspended parliament in 2021, a move that many Tunisians welcomed at the time as an effort to end political deadlock that had worsened economic and social tensions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, Tunisia\u2019s financial troubles have worsened, and the country\u2019s legacy as the only democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring uprisings is in tatters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some protesters Saturday shared support for sub-Saharan Africans in Tunisia, who have described getting\u00a0pelted with rocks, hit with racist insults\u00a0or kicked out of their lodging since the president called for a crackdown against foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ivory Coast and Guinea sent planes to evacuate their citizens being targeted as Tunisian authorities\u00a0stepped up arrests of migrants.\u00a0Some sub-Saharan Africans have camped out in tents in front of the U.N. migration office in Tunis to seek protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, Tunisian authorities banned another protest, planned for Sunday by the Islamist National Salvation Front, calling it a \u201cthreat to public safety.\u201d Islamist leaders called on supporters to take to the streets anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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